Public trust thinking and public ownership of wildlife in Italy and the United States

Abstract

AbstractWildlife laws codify normative aspirations to conserve species. However, species continue to decline or disappear, highlighting a disconnect between normative aspirations and conservation outcomes. Public trust thinking (PTT) is a philosophical approach to natural resources, including wildlife, characterized by commitments to public control, broad public interests, and conservation for future generations. Elements of PTT feature in natural resource governance traditions across cultures and over time, notably in the common‐law public trust doctrine (PTD). We ask whether PTT's foundational principles inform public wildlife governance in Italy, a civil law country where wildlife is publicly owned but PTD does not exist. We identify all five foundational principles of PTT in elements of Italian law and policy and compare them with examples from the United States, where PTD for wildlife is more firmly established. We argue that a de facto public trust exists in Italian legal and policy aspirations, but meeting these aspirations is inhibited by absence of clear legal responsibilities and constructive, inclusive public engagement processes. By establishing that similar aspirations exist in both countries despite differences in legal histories and institutional architectures, we support claims that functional equivalents of PTD exist in civil law traditions and lend weight to recent proposals to use PTT to guide creative wildlife governance reform outside of common‐law systems. Specifying precise responsibilities for public wildlife administrators across levels of governance will be essential to connect normative aspirations with conservation outcomes.